Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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Jews.’ 55 The approval for the school’s establishment was received by the mayor’s
office on 6 May 1938. The school was to originally have had three teaching staff.
However, owing to a staff shortage it was decided to employ only two teachers.
The provincial government bowed to the city’s pressure and agreed that the
province, and not the city, would fund the new school and the remuneration of
staff. 56
Separate classes for Jewish pupils in the new segregated school were supposed
to have commenced on 1 April 1938. However, due to a number of bureaucratic
problems, including employing the necessary Jewish teachers, this was delayed
until 1 June 1938. 57 After a lengthy application process Rudolf Rosenberg, who
already occupied a teaching position at the Religionsschule, and Kurt Schindler,
formerly of Berlin, were appointed. 58 The two classes were to attend to the needs
of approximately eighty-five children and to take place in the designated school
building located at Kleine Schulstraße 24.
At the time not all Jewish children attended the ‘Judenschule,’ since there
were various exemptions. Those pupils not in possession of such exemptions were
forced out of public schools and into the ‘Judenschule.’ One interviewee recalled
commencing his school life in 1937 at the ‘Zweite Gemeindeschule’. Ironically,
the ‘Judenschule’ was established adjacent to his ‘old’ school. He recalled his
experiences at the ‘Judenschule’ and that the pupils of both schools shared the
55
Betr.: Einrichtung einer Judenschule, 12. März 1938, Bestand Rep. C 28 II,
Signatur Nr. 3996, LHASA MD, p. 3.
56
Betr.: Errichtung von Lehrerstellen für die Judenschule, 18. Januar 1938 – 28.
Januar 1938, ibid., pp. 5–6.
57
Correspondence from the office of Der Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Magdeburg, 17
May 1938 – 12 August 1938, ibid., pp. 7–21.
58
Ibid.